Direct thermal printing of documents such as transaction documents and receipts is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,784,906 and 6,759,366, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. In direct thermal printing, a printer is configured to allow printing on one or both sides of thermal media moving along a feed path through the printer. In such printers a direct thermal print head is disposed on one or both sides of the media along the feed path for selectively applying heat to paper or other media comprising a substrate with a thermally sensitive coating. The coating changes color when heat is applied, by which “printing” is provided on the coated substrate. For two-sided direct thermal printing, the media substrate may be coated on, and heat may be applied to, both media sides.